'Between Heaven and Earth'
The Golden Bough by James G. Frazer: Chapter 4, Sections 1 & 2, Oak, Mistletoe and Blood
Chapter 4 is titled The Golden Bough and is the place where Frazer's remarkable mind gathered the threads of his myriad sources.
Burning a spirit of vegetation in a fire representative of the sun is the key aspect of primitive sympathetic magic that is a form of ritualized slash and burn agriculture proposed by Frazer. While urban and suburban persons na…